Thousands cheered the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on Monday, watching a trail of 1,000 huge styrofoam dominoes collapse along a one-mile route where the nefarious barrier between communism and the Western world once stood. But there was a very special guest in attendance, too, reports the AP:

"Chancellor Angela Merkel and 78-year-old Gorbachev stood shoulder to shoulder as they crossed a former fortified border crossing point between East and West Berlin to cheers of 'Gorby! Gorby!'

'Looking back, we can see many causes that led to the peaceful revolution, but it still remains a miracle,' German President Horst Koehler told the leaders of all 27 European Union countries, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Merkel -- Germany's first chancellor to be raised in the former communist East -- called the events of Nov. 9, 1989 an "epic" moment in history.

'For me, it was one of the happiest moments of my life,' Merkel told a crowd of tens of thousands packed around the Brandenburg Gate."

World leaders gathering for the celebration included French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Noticeably absent was U.S. President Barack Obama, who is scheduled to attend a memorial for the Fort Hood massacre victims tomorrow but who RSVP'd "no" even before Thursday's tragedy. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton attended instead, in a glaring absence of a leader from one of the key countries to have brought down the Iron Curtain. Obama instead sent a video message that was screened at the festivities.

Relive that moment two decades ago with this classic Peter Jennings clip. And enjoy more photos from the festivities here.

(Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)

The Gulf Coast is bracing for Hurricane Ida in, compared to recent years, what has felt like a slow storm season for those along America's south and eastern coastlines. The season used to end on Halloween, according to the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, but has gradually been stretched to encompass June 1 to Nov. 30. More on Ida from CNN:

"Hurricane Ida moved into the southern Gulf of Mexico on Sunday, prompting a declaration of emergency in Louisiana and a hurricane watch for parts of the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The storm regained hurricane intensity overnight, becoming a Category 2 hurricane, but forecasters said it is expected to weaken as it moves north. Ida drenched Nicaragua after making landfall last week as a Category 1 hurricane, then weakened to a tropical storm before intensifying.

In El Salvador, at least 91 people died in flooding and mudslides, according to the government, but a low-pressure system out of the Pacific -- not Hurricane Ida -- triggered the disaster, forecaster Robby Berg of the National Hurricane Center said Sunday.

The U.S. watch -- meaning hurricane conditions are possible within 36 hours -- extends from Grand Isle, Louisiana, eastward to Mexico Beach, Florida, forecasters said. It does not include the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, the hurricane center said."

Look back on when the Gulf Coast braced for Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Ike' last year.

Paris. New York. Milan. Karachi?

Yes, in the face of the usual irritated fundamentalists, Pakistani designers finally got to send their creations down in the catwalk in that country's first ever fashion week. And perhaps that bravery makes the clothes even more beautiful. More:

"Some women strode the catwalk in vicious spiked bracelets and body armor. Others had their heads covered, burqa-style, but with shoulders -- and tattoos -- exposed. Male models wore long, Islamic robes as well as shorts and sequined T-shirts.

As surging militant violence grabs headlines around the world, Pakistan's top designers and models are taking part in the country's first-ever fashion week. While the mix of couture and ready-to-wear fashions would not have been out of place in Milan or New York, many designers made reference to the turmoil, reflecting the contradictions and tensions coursing through this society.

The four-day event, which was postponed twice due to security fears and amid unease at hosting such a gathering during an army offensive in the northwest, is aimed at showing the world there is more to Pakistan than violence and at helping boost an industry that employs hundreds of thousands of people, organizers said.

Many of the models, designers and well-heeled fashionistas packing out each night said the gathering was a symbolic blow to the Taliban and their vision of society, where women are largely confined to the house and must wear a sack-like covering known as a burqa.

'This is our gesture of defiance to the Taliban,' said Ayesha Tammy Haq, the CEO of Fashion Pakistan Week. 'There is a terrible problem of militancy and political upheaval ... but that doesn't mean that the country shuts down. That doesn't mean that business comes to a halt.'"

View a gallery of some of the couture from Fashion Pakistan Week here.

(Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)

Here's a good story from the AP: A Vietnamese child flees the fall of Saigon, then returns to his homeland as an adult... and as the commander of a U.S. Navy destroyer. Especially as we approach Veterans Day here in the U.S. -- and are reeling from the tragedy of an Army major taking 13 lives in a bloodbath at Fort Hood -- it's uplifting to read this tale of a man returning to Vietnam in service of the country that took his family in decades ago. More:

"...Le piloted the USS Lassen on Saturday into Danang, home of China Beach, where U.S. troops frequently headed for R&R during the war, which ended on April 30, 1975, when the southern city of Saigon was taken by communist troops from North Vietnam.

That was the day Le and his family embarked on an uncertain journey in a fishing boat piloted by Le's father, who was a commander in the South Vietnamese navy. They were rescued at sea by the USS Barbour County, taken to a U.S. base in the Philippines, a refugee camp in California and finally to northern Virginia, where they rebuilt their lives.

Le returned on the Lassen, an $800 million, 509-foot destroyer equipped with Tomahawk missiles and a crew of 300. The ship and the USS Blue Ridge, the command vessel for the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet, are making the latest in a series of goodwill visits to Vietnam, which began in 2003 when the USS Vandergriff paid a port call to Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon.

'I thought that one day I would return but I really didn't expect to be returning as the commander of a Navy warship,' Le said after stepping ashore Saturday. 'It's an incredible personal honor.'

'I'm proud to be an American, but I'm also very proud of my Vietnamese heritage,' said Le, who spoke a few halting words in Vietnamese."

Read the whole thing here.